Website a tribute to tornado volunteers

People who helped in recovery gather at church to record their stories

Steve Stein of the Journal Star

WASHINGTON —- Volunteers who have helped in the recovery efforts from the Nov. 17 tornado have a place all their own to tell their stories.

The website www.thankyouvolunteers.com has been set up to collect photos, videos and written accounts that will be presented to the Washington District Library.

More than 800 volunteers from six states were invited to a reception Saturday at Crossroads United Methodist Church to get caught up with fellow volunteers and tell their stories on video for the website.

Only a handful of volunteers stopped by, but reception organizers and website sponsors Homeway Homes of Goodfield and AdCo Advertising of Peoria hope word will get out about the website.

One volunteer at the reception didn’t have to walk far from her familiar post in the church kitchen.

Nikki Hudson, who heads the catering ministry at the church, led a Herculean effort that cooked and served more than 30,000 meals for volunteers and tornado victims who descended on the church in the week after the twister.

“God prepared us for what we had to do and gave us what we needed,” the Metamora resident said.

She recalled leaving the church in a van immediately after the tornado hit and going to a grocery store in East Peoria. She returned to the church with donated food to feed church members who couldn’t get to their homes.

The EF-4 tornado, which struck on a Sunday morning, roared perilously close to the North Main Street church, which was filled with hundreds of worshippers, but caused little damage.

In the days after the tornado, the church became the gathering spot for volunteers and victims, and they had to be fed.

Help came from all directions.

“We needed a chef, and one walked through the door. When we were running low on food, we received a donation of 200 pieces of chicken,” Hudson said.

Two donated trucks provided refrigeration for the food.

“We went from being a food pantry to a warehouse,” Hudson said. “So many people came to help us. And nobody said they couldn’t do a job.”

During the two weeks when the church fed thousands, Hudson’s rheumatoid arthritis didn’t bother her, she said.

Her feet hurt one day, so someone went to buy a special pair of shoes for her. The trip produced a donation of 3,000 pairs of shoes for victims.

Steve Stein can be reached at 686-3114 or stevestein21@yahoo.com. Read his Stein Time blog on pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpartanSteve.